Day 7 - My First Farmers Market Delivery

Our first farmers market delivery box came yesterday. The box was filled with ripe peaches, berries, farm fresh eggs, fresh local organic in season veggies, grass fed beef and fresh local halibut yummy!!! I was finally feeling better this morning and decided to get creative with the goods. Justin left to go surfing, so I decided to make a complete mess of the kitchen. No matter how hard I try to keep it clean as I go, I am never successful. As long as the food turns out, that's all that matters right?

I had the old standby for breakfast: scrambled eggs, zucchini and roasted red bell pepper topped with TJs salsa verde, sliced tomato and the last of the pancetta.

The eggs look different when they don't come from a factory

Humanly raised, no antibiotics and no nitrates. Just good stuff.

Good Morning!

For lunch I made grilled halibut in a lemon caper shallot sauce, roasted chard topped with crumbled bacon and roasted fennel.

This was my first attempt at roasted fennel. This is definitely going to be added to the repertoire. I quartered the fennel, tossed it in grape seed oil (due to the high heat) and added salt and pepper. Simple. It gets roasted for an hour at 410 with one turn halfway through.

Fresh Fennel

I typically sautee chard, but it always gets so soggy. I learned a trick today. Roasting chard on a cookie sheet keeps the chard crispier. I removed the stems from the chard and cut it in ribbons. I tossed it in avocado oil (another great oil for high heat) with shallots, salt and pepper. I roasted it for 10 -12 minutes turning it once halfway through. Its better to roast a thin layer as opposed to roasting it in a deeper pan make sure the greens cook evenly.

One bunch of fresh chard

Crispy Bacon

I made mayo from scratch yesterday. The actual consistency was more watery than thick. I mixed it with some fresh crab yesterday and it was delish! I prefer homemade mayo to the store bought variety. I made my mayo with an egg yolk, 3/4c of oil, salt, mustard and paprika. Olive oil gives mayo a bitter taste. I used half avocado oil and half grape seed oil. Canola oil is not as good for you. I took the mayo and added fresh squeezed lemon juice and capers to drizzle over the halibut. I looked and tasted just like a French burre blanc sauce.

Homemade mayo lasts for one week

I grilled the halibut over ghee and shallots.

Wild Local Halibut Filled with Omega 3s

Two burner grill pan over a gas stove

Halibut with shallots and capers with roasted chard and fennel. A new favorite!

It came out so tender a delicious. The wild local halibut was expensive at $20 per pound compared to $7.50 a pound for grass fed beef. Lunch was a heavenly splurge.

Dinner was more of a sinful splurge. Boot camp and the food journal start Monday. Tonight was my last chance to have any food I wanted for dinner. My appetizer was gluten free chocolate flavored coconut ice cream with almond butter. My main course was In N' Out french fries compliments of Justin. The ice cream was really good. The french fries were just ok. I won't miss them over the next six weeks. I may miss my wine though...